Re: how to learn about shopwork

The closest active steam loco shop is at the Texas State Railroad; they are state-owned and are definitely not in a position to "teach". The Austin Steam Train Association is closer, but they are currently "diesel only" since they broke a cylinder head (i think that's what it was) on their ex-T&P 700 series 2-8-2.
The second closest working shop (to my knowledge) is Chama -- that tells you how little steam there is in Texas.
It'd be nice if there was a "Chilton's" shop manual, but such a thing doesn't appear to exist in any reasonable form. I've been working on understanding the elemental skills (machine shop, welding, steam theory, etc.) but there seems to be no way to connect those with the reality of what I see on the C&TS.